Meru JSS teachers demand permanent employment and downsizing.
Teachers in Meru County’s junior secondary schools have sworn they won’t go back to work until the government hires them on a permanent basis.
After working as interns for two years, the teachers held protests in Tigania Central and Imenti North sub-counties, accusing the government of misusing their services by not confirming their status as permanent employees eligible for pensions.
Speaking to the media, the teachers under the leadership of Gikundi Karutui criticized the administration for not resolving their complaints and honoring its pledge to confirm over 26,000 teachers on terms that would be both permanent and pensionable.
“We will not return to classes, rain or shine, until the government pays us for the time we have worked for inadequate pay and grants us permanent employment,” Karutui declared.
Teachers who were dissatisfied went to their local Teachers Service Commission (TSC) offices to file complaints. They then requested that the government send funding right once to cover the cost of the TSC’s prompt confirmation of interns.
A teacher who is impacted, Carolyne Gakii, stated, “We are not afraid of intimidation, but we will keep downing tools and sabotaging learning until the government addresses our plight because we cannot continue offering services while earning peanuts on intern program.”
They also accused the TSC of discriminatory hiring practices for JSS instructors.
“We want TSC to be transparent about the mechanism they are employing to provide an internship to a 2016 graduate and to hire a 2023 graduate on a full-time, pensionable basis. If this isn’t corruption, we want to know,” Karutui remarked.
They also pleaded with the commission to abide by the Employment and Labour Relations Court’s rulings.
In the past, TSC used a formula to hire teachers. What became of this? Teacher Miriti Avezi questioned, “Why is this not happening now when they employed us on years of graduation?”
They also said that TSC ought to be transparent about the duration of the contract and that the commission ought to quit putting teachers’ welfare last.
Along with calling on the Kenya National Union of Teachers and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers to support and press the government to address the issue in order to clear the path for a seamless learning process upon school reopening, the teachers who turned out in huge numbers to demonstrate also addressed the government.
Meru JSS teachers demand permanent employment and downsizing.
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